The new solar plant will be built by Kyocera TCL Solar LLC, a joint venture created by Kyocera with Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation. It will generate an estimated 26,312 megawatt hours per year, enough electricity to power approximately 8,100 Japanese households.
Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing are also developing, in partnership with two other companies, a 92 MW solar power plant at a site in Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan which was originally designated for golf course use more than 30 years ago but subsequently abandoned. Kyocera’s interest in this area has encouraged a public debate in the US, particularly in states such as Florida, Utah, Kansas and Minnesota, focusing on the conversion of old golf courses, many of which appeared during the overdevelopment of golf properties during the real-estate boom of the 1990’s and 2000’s.
This has led to hundreds of abandoned golf courses that are now being assessed for potential redevelopment, often as sites for new housing development, parkland or other uses, including solar farms. Old golf courses have the advantage of expansive land mass, high exposure to solar irradiation and a low concentration of shade trees.
The new plant, located in Fushimi Ward, will be the largest solar power installation in Kyoto Prefecture. This area was also the site chosen by Kyocera for its first major solar energy research centre in the mid-1970s.
Image by Kyocera
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